


Years

by Noxyme



Series: Ferdibert Week 2019 [8]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21834538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noxyme/pseuds/Noxyme
Summary: In which Hubert recalls his past.
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra
Series: Ferdibert Week 2019 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567462
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	Years

**Author's Note:**

> Day 8 - Free

He saw him for the first time when they were 4 and 7.

He came with his father, to be introduced to the imperial family. Ferdinand was asleep in his nanny's arms, looking so peaceful that he mistook him for a big doll at first. He was pretty like that. 

For some reason unknown to him, the son of the Prime Minister preferred to spend his time with him and Edelgard rather than with her siblings, even if, at the time, she only was the ninth child of the emperor. It was weird how he would not even approach the other princes and princesses if not impelled to do so by his father. As if he had seen their fate. As if he already knew that she would be the only survivor. 

Maybe it was true, in a way. Maybe the light that had always surrounded him, still so pure at the time, untainted by the horrors of war, unconsciously made him avert the aura of lingering death emanating from them, guiding him towards the glory of the person who would become the face of their revolution. 

Just thinking about him was enough to irritate him, when they were 17 and 20.

Why was he so obsessed with being better than lady Edelgard? 

To him, Ferdinand was just a spoiled brat with an obsession with tea and horses who never failed to bug his empress, as if she did not have more important business to attend to.  
Tea was not even that good anyway.  
He needed to learn that the World did not revolve around him, and Hubert was oh so ready to give him that lesson. But lady Edelgard told him that he could not just poison the son of the Prime Minister, and so he was forced to stand his foolish antics for a whole year. 

He was well aware of the fact that he had the trust of the other students, and he too recognized his skills in the battlefield. But did he always have to counter his strategies? 

He would hear only words of praise about him, when they were 20 and 23. 

Three years before, they had all gone in their separate, yet bound to meet again, paths. Ferdinand had gone back home to take care of his lands and his retiring father, occasionally fighting against the Kingdom in the northern front. Stories of his chivalry and glorious deeds were passed down the soldiers.

He thought that he too must have grown as the rest of them and he caught himself missing him sometimes. Missing even their petty fights, because even if they had usually been useless, sometimes they had exposed big flaws in his strategies. 

Maybe it was just because his light made the darkness he lived in more bearable. He had grown fond of him, in a way, and had given him for granted, but he had started to realize it only after leaving Garreg Mach. 

It could also be that he was simply worried for him. Good people were always the ones who risked their lives the most, after all. 

Hubert realised that Ferdinand had grown up to be his exact opposite, when they were 23 and 26. 

An angel and a demon.

He would always remember the moment in which he saw him again, fighting against one of the bandits in the ruins of the monastery. His long hair were framing his perfect face as he killed his opponent with graceful, silent movements. An angel of death.

It was in that moment that he realised that he was done for, that he was hopelessly, definitively in love with him. But how could he pretend to be worthy of a creature like him, when he had already given up his humanity a long time before?

A compassionate human and a merciless monster. 

He admired him for who he was, for how he made his people feel safe when they saw how much pain each death caused him. He admired him because he always chose to lead the front-line soldiers, he, who felt responsible for every life. Hubert's role was easier. He hardly ever lost a man, but not because he was better than him; he simply fought from afar, from where his men were safe. 

He admired his behaviour, but it worried him too. 

He saw him almost die at Gronder Field, for having hesitated to kill an old schoolmate. War was cruel and Ferdinand was not. Hubert's biggest fear was that, one day, the man's greatest perk would be the cause of his demise. 

He left the battle physically unscathed that day, but not mentally. 

And Hubert wanted to tell him that it had not been his fault, that everyone was responsible for their decisions. He wanted to reassure him, and to say that he was perfect like that, because killing other people should not be easy; that he was the one in the right; that he was the role model everyone should aspire to be. 

But, when he reached his tent he stopped, because he could not find the words. And of course, Ferdinand would never want to hear those kind of things from someone like him anyway. How could he pretend to have the right to, in the first place?  
That was why, that day, he decided that the best he could do for him was leaving him alone.

One day- he thought -one day, I will find the words.

And he did.

They got married when they were 24 and 27.

On that day, Hubert felt like the luckiest man on Earth.

**Author's Note:**

> And this is the end! Thank you for reading this series! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
